Trade title defends 9/11 'bad taste' story

The news editor of the trade magazine Caterer & Hotelkeeper has defended his controversial decision to run a picture of a body falling from the World Trade Centre with the caption, "Man who leapt to own death was pastry chef".

David Harris said the family of Norberto Hernandez had requested that his picture be used because they felt the memory of those who died was being sullied by general anonymity.

"From memory we were the first British publication to use the picture, but it had already been used, with similar reasoning, in the New York Times," Harris said in a letter to MediaGuardian.co.uk.

Harris was responding to a diary story in Media Monkey about a recent edition of Caterer & Hotelkeeper, featuring a story about the suicide of a financial adviser at a Dorset hotel.

The article featured a sidebar on hotels at which people have committed suicide, headlined "Getting Away From It All at a Hotel Of Your Choice".

"I can only plead proper reporting of all the facts. It is unfortunately true that many suicides check into hotels to check out of life and this is obviously distressing to those hotel staff who find the bodies," said Harris.